Ted Cruz attacks Obama for not arresting cannabis users in Colorado

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Friday criticized President Barack Obama for not arresting people in Colorado who violated federal law by using marijuana.

“A whole lot of folks now are talking about legalizing pot. The brownies you had this morning, provided by the state of Colorado,” he jokingly said during his keynote speech at Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Policy Orientation.

“And you can make arguments on that issue,” Cruz continued. “You can make reasonable arguments on that issue. The president earlier this past year announced the Department of Justice is going to stop prosecuting certain drug crimes. Didn’t change the law.”

Voters in Colorado and Washington state voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in 2013, but federal law still prohibits the use of the drug. The Department of Justice announced in August of 2013 that it would not target for arrest adults who used marijuana in compliance with state laws.

Cruz said the Obama administration should continue imprisoning people for using marijuana until federal law is changed.

“You can go to Congress, you can get a conversation, you could get Democrats and Republicans who would say, ‘We ought to change our drug policy in some way,’ and you could have a real conversation, you could have hearings, you could look at the problem, you could discuss commonsense changes that maybe should happen or shouldn’t happen. This president didn’t do that. He just said, ‘The laws say one thing’ — and mind you these are criminal laws, these are laws that say if you do ‘X, Y, and Z’ you will go to prison. The president announced, ‘No, you won’t.’”

“You can go to Congress, you can get a conversation, you could get Democrats and Republicans who would say, ‘We ought to change our drug policy in some way,’ and you could have a real conversation, you could have hearings, you could look at the problem, you could discuss commonsense changes that maybe should happen or shouldn’t happen. This president didn’t do that. He just said, ‘The laws say one thing’ — and mind you these are criminal laws, these are laws that say if you do ‘X, Y, and Z’ you will go to prison. The president announced, ‘No, you won’t.’”

I am not sure we read the same article/news reports. Cruz was not saying to arrest anyone. He was making a point. That instead of going to congress and changing the law. This President once again goes around Congress.

“You can go to Congress, you can get a conversation, you could get Democrats and Republicans who would say, ‘We ought to change our drug policy in some way,’ and you could have a real conversation, you could have hearings, you could look at the problem, you could discuss commonsense changes that maybe should happen or shouldn’t happen. This president didn’t do that. He just said, ‘The laws say one thing’ — and mind you these are criminal laws, these are laws that say if you do ‘X, Y, and Z’ you will go to prison. The president announced, ‘No, you won’t.’”

I am not sure we read the same article/news reports. Cruz was not saying to arrest anyone. He was making a point. That instead of going to congress and changing the law. This President once again goes around Congress.

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Bang on. This is an attack on Obama, not on Colorado and Washington cannabis users. I think a major reason why the DoJ took this stance is that they recognize that if the Federal prohibition were tested in the courts against states' rights, they would lose.

Bang on. This is an attack on Obama, not on Colorado and Washington cannabis users. I think a major reason why the DoJ took this stance is that they recognize that if the Federal prohibition were tested in the courts against states' rights, they would lose.

Yeah, but the jerk still wants Obama to arrest cannabis users. If he didn't, why is he bitching because the feds aren't doing their jobs?

I'm glad he's still Canadian!

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Because Obama once again has gone above his office to make policy(LAW). If he wants marijuana to be legal then he should do it the right way. Through congress which is supposed to make laws. The president is the Executive of the US. He is supposed to enforce the laws Congress supplies.

Because Obama once again has gone above his office to make policy(LAW). If he wants marijuana to be legal then he should do it the right way. Through congress which is supposed to make laws. The president is the Executive of the US. He is supposed to enforce the laws Congress supplies.

Kinda like how he has changed the healthcare law over 20 times.

Cruz has dual citizenship. Nothing special there.

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I'm not for any asshole that says we should be putting cannabis users in prison. I say again, fuck this asshole!

Watch the video. I watched a longer version of that same speech. He did not say anything about arresting anyone. Where in the video did he say what you are saying he did? Did not imply anyone should be arrested. And to me does not seem like he believes people should be arrested.

I repeat he was pointing out Obama overstepping the Office of the President again. Picking and choosing what laws he will and will not enforce.

If he is pointing out that the DOJ isn't doing their jobs, does that mean he wants to throw a party then to celebrate? To me, that means he wants people arrested.

Cruz is against cannabis, and I refuse to back anyone that is that backwards ass in their thinking about cannabis. Well, Cruz is an idiot about everything really.

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Political priority #1 for 2016, make sure this person(I use the term person loosely) does not become president. He claims to be for easing regulations regarding small businesses, but wants to shut down a booming new industry in CO & WA. Are these not the small business he claims are being stifled by over-zealous government regulations? Despite the fact that a majority of people support and voted for these changes. And what about the tax revenue this new industry has already generated? I thought the tea party was anti-big government and against over regulation.

Because Obama once again has gone above his office to make policy(LAW). If he wants marijuana to be legal then he should do it the right way. Through congress which is supposed to make laws. The president is the Executive of the US. He is supposed to enforce the laws Congress supplies.

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That's entirely wrong in regards to controlled substances:

"Cannabis could be rescheduled either legislatively, through Congress, or through the executive branch.

The Controlled Substances Act also provides for a rulemaking process by which the United States Attorney General can reschedule cannabis administratively."

Watch the video. I watched a longer version of that same speech. He did not say anything about arresting anyone. Where in the video did he say what you are saying he did? Did not imply anyone should be arrested. And to me does not seem like he believes people should be arrested.

I repeat he was pointing out Obama overstepping the Office of the President again. Picking and choosing what laws he will and will not enforce.

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Actually, that is a traditional function of even low-level executive branch enforcement policy - too wit, a cop can send someone home who is DWI if they have a safe driver with them and no record, which happens all the time. That is an unelected police officer deciding when and where to enforce a particular law, and goes back to at least the English revolution (Cromwell) in the common law.

Cops have been doing the same thing with herb for decades - I've been arrested and charge for having less herb than I have also just been sent home for. I may not like the variance, but it is an established right of the enforcement arm of the government. And plenty of previous presidents have done the same thing with other criminal categories, with nobody raising a stink.

And until relatively recently, the Obama administration had more annual mj prosecutions than the W admin, not less. Where was your outrage then?

A lot of presidents make some unpopular decisions his last year in office. I'm hoping Obama changes the laws regarding cannabis in this country, I think if he did it now, there would be too many people pissed, mostly conservatives.

I am concerned about the laws in WA state regarding testing drivers for cannabis when checking for drivers under the influence. Cannabis stays in your system a long time compared to alcohol, and varies depending how much fat you have in your body.

Ted Cruise is an ass. If the country was stupid enough to vote George W. Bush into office. - all bets are off.

“You can go to Congress, you can get a conversation, you could get Democrats and Republicans who would say, ‘We ought to change our drug policy in some way,’ and you could have a real conversation, you could have hearings, you could look at the problem, you could discuss commonsense changes that maybe should happen or shouldn’t happen. This president didn’t do that. He just said, ‘The laws say one thing’ — and mind you these are criminal laws, these are laws that say if you do ‘X, Y, and Z’ you will go to prison. The president announced, ‘No, you won’t.’”

I am not sure we read the same article/news reports. Cruz was not saying to arrest anyone. He was making a point. That instead of going to congress and changing the law. This President once again goes around Congress.

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Congress has the lowest approval rating in history because of this bullshit of "come to me to ask for a law change" mentality, while most of them don't even show up for votes.

Dog poo has polled with a higher favorability rating than the congress in the past 5 years. The congress wastes all their time repeatedly voting down Obamacare (what are we at like 20 votes last year alone?) but not actually passing any useful legislation.

It's their job to create and modify laws. Their job is not to sit back and wait for a president to tell them what to do (and then reject the idea anyway and just continue to vote on Obamacare over and over again to no end)

The congress and senate have been failing this country for decades and the people have noticed. The problem is elections for congress happen at the district level and it's super easy to redistrict to slant the votes to one particular political party and thus "own" seats and never be threatened to be voted out because the other party can't actually win in that district once you check the numbers.

Ted Cruz is also one of the biggest anti-science trolls in congress. We all know that the legalization movement is driven by a few critical components.

Science

Facts

Erasing old laws written based on myth and racism

Ted Cruz is defiantly against all 3 pillars of progress.

In fact if you read the legal arguments from those days when cannabis was classified as narcotic, the arguments specifically state things like cannabis being common among "jazz musicians, negreos and filipinos ..."

Obama has certainly failed to live up to his promises for stopping the crackdowns from the fed.

But Ted Cruz is an unreasonable troll who is either pretending to not understand 7th grade science for lulz and partisan trolling, or he is truly ignorant.

[edit] Ted Cruz is a senator not a congressman. But both Senate and congress have all-time low ratings.

Ted Cruz set the record for the all-time lowest approval rating of a senator (14%) and he was the spearhead behind the government shut down, that failed to actually achieve it's goal (yet another vote on obamacare)

Ted Cruz's health care is paid for by the taxpayers, even before Obamacare went into effect.

Ted Cruz's health care is paid for by the taxpayers, even before Obamacare went into effect.

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Exactly. They scream socialism when they hear "obamacare" but they actually have the best socialized healthcare in this country, and it is solely exclusive to themselves and their families. We, as regular citizens of this country are not entitled to the same amazing healthcare that our tax funds provide for them. It's hypocrisy at it's absolute worst.

True, Obama hasn't lived up to everyone's expectations. There are 2 things that he accomplished with his healthcare bill. Children being able to stay on their parent's insurance until they're 26 and nobody can get booted off your insurance because of a pre existing condition or denied insurance.

Not being denied insurance has affected my life enormously. It seems like quite a bit of the healthcare bill makes life harder for the average person and more expensive in the long run.

It will be an interesting campaign for president with some of the lists of characters including Ted Cruz.
Good thing it's still a year away. They start major campaigning 2 years before an election.

Look out WA and Colo if a republican president gets into office in 3 years.

The hilarious part is this "Obamacare" hybrid model (instead of a single payer plan which was what original reform was supposed to be) was a compromise done to get both parties to agree to pass it. And it passed. So why are we arguing now?

Obama care is far less "liberal" than Mitt Romney care that worked in MA. Meanwhile Mitt Romney was supposedly "against" health care reform at the national level because... "it should be at the state level"... Umm ok?
But later he said he was kinda against his own previous state plan.

The reality is rich people like Romney and Obama don't really give a fuck one way or the other, it's just whatever is polling well.

Obamacare urgency was actually a result of the recession and economic projections showing how health care would eventually implode under the previous system because of the exact reasons mentioned above. Healthy, young people see no need to buy insurance.

For them, they are correct. Healthy young people do not need to buy insurance. However we live in an advanced society where we try not to abandon sick people in the street as much as possible. We live in a society that we understand all of us will grow old and die, or die before we grow old, or somewhere in the middle.

Because we are stuck with "insurance" that means the money needs to balance out. The only way to balance out insurance, as well all know is for people who don't make claims to pay the insurance anyway.

Magically it's worked for decades with home-owners insurance and car insurance. I haven't had an car claim EVER, but I pay every month. You don't see me staging a protest. Home owners insurance doesn't even cover floods, which are the riskiest thing. But we pay it anyway....

Health insurance is now simply joining in on the "racket" of making people pay who don't use it. Why? Because otherwise ONLY Mitt Romney, Obama and Donald Trump would have health care otherwise.

I personally hate the insurance model, but it's the only proven model for this type of society. I mean who really enjoys paying insurance? NObody.

Politicians need to stop treating us like children. Of course I want to shoot a gun wherever I want and not pay insurance and not have speed limits and not wear condoms while filming porn or run my sprinkler system all day in a drought ... but I recognize there are things we all need to do to benefit society as a whole which eventually benefits either me or future generations.

Nobody "enjoys" paying social security. But people who collect it are not "communists" or whatever. It's just the best system that anyone has developed, and it worked for decades, it's far from perfect.. but it's a lot better than many of the state and local pension systems (which are all mostly going bankrupt)

They just paid out a retiring Fire Chief here in cali $500k in "back sick/vacation pay" ... retired at 55ish. WTF is that shit? Half a mil one time payment? SSI checks are like what now, $800month? Not even enough to buy cat-food.

The hilarious part is this "Obamacare" hybrid model (instead of a single payer plan which was what original reform was supposed to be) was a compromise done to get both parties to agree to pass it. And it passed. So why are we arguing now?

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Republican butchering of health care reform was reluctantly allowed in order to get something in place that was better than the horrible mess we had (and still do, as far as ridiculous prices for all health services). Of course the GOP won't admit that the weaknesses they're throwing mud at are the result of them hacking up what would have been a much better system. It's like the government mandating that car manufacturers make their vehicles both bullet proof and lighter weight at the same time, and then calling them incompetent when they can't get it done.